"WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!"
“WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT!”
Hebrews 2: 9 - 12; Hebrews 9:11,12; Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10: 19 - 25
It is important in studying Scripture to remember that we see things as they are before God, and in this point of view to recognise not only what God is toward man but what man is before God. The evangelist has to present the first; he can enlighten; he can do no more; but the other side is also constantly presented in Scripture, namely, what believers are to God. The truth is greatly obscured in our minds by the attempt, so common in man, to measure what God is toward us by what we are toward God. But no! We must first learn what God is toward us in grace. The first lesson must be learned before what we are toward God can be really known in the soul. We apprehend both in our Lord Jesus Christ. He presents God in grace to man, and at the same time man before God. Everything takes its blessed character from what He is in His own Person as Son; but I am not for the moment touching on what He is in His own Person as divine. We get in Scripture the truth of His Person, but we also get Him presented in what He has become for the will of God. In this aspect He presents God to man, and man to God, and we need to know both. The two thoughts are conveyed in the expressions last Adam and second Man. As last Adam He stands absolutely alone, a life-giving Spirit. As second Man He is the first and pattern of a company. To us (christians) we read there is “One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”.
Why is Christ thus presented? Because the grace of God toward us is ministered mediatorially through our Lord Jesus Christ — everything comes to us in that way. Paul and Silas say to the Philippian jailer,
“[p. 284] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. They present Him as the object of faith. I might say that He could not be an object of faith if He were not divine, but He is presented as Lord. He has secured all for God’s glory, and all is now administered through Him. Romans 5 presents what God is to the believer, and at every point you find it in the expression, “Our Lord Jesus Christ”. It presents what God is to the believer mediatorially through our Lord Jesus Christ. This answers in a sense to Hebrews 2. In Romans 6 you get the other side, what Christ is, as man, to God: “In that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. This answers to the truth of Hebrews 9. The position of head of a family illustrates what I have said in a measure. In his true place he, as head, represents God to his house; and in his honour or disgrace his house shares; but on the other hand he is one with them as before God.
If you study the epistle to the Hebrews, you will see that chapter 2 is God’s thesis — the divine proposition — what God has proposed to Himself to accomplish, that is, to bring many sons unto glory. We do not reach this till chapter 10. There is a long gap between — much to be learnt as to ourselves, and as to Christ — but there (chapter 10) we reach God’s great purpose for us. That chapter brings the believer on his side to where God is already in chapter 2. Chapter 9 shows us the place Christ has taken on our part, in heaven in the presence of God. Correspondingly in chapter 10 we have boldness to enter into the holiest. But more as to this further on. Is it the purpose of God to have sons, and the sons not to enter into it? It is a poor son who does not appreciate the wisdom and respond to the love of his father. God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us, and we have boldness to enter the holiest. God gets His part now. When I [p. 285] have reached this I have entered into the apprehension of God’s glory and His love — God’s thought towards me. The holiest is the scene of God’s unalloyed satisfaction in man. I enter now into the light of the Father. The Trinity is engaged in the revelation. There is the Father’s thought, and the Son makes known the counsel of the Father’s will. He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. Thus we have in verse 12 the communion of Christ in the divine proposition. He takes a place there on behalf of God, and the Spirit makes it good in us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit. In this way we are brought practically into the truth of the divine proposition presented in chapter 2: 10.
Now, in chapter 9: 11, 12, we find the other side of the truth — Christ has entered into the holy place once. See the difference! It is not the point here that He came out. He did come out. We find that in chapter 2. But here He has entered in. He has entered in to the entire satisfaction of God, on ground on which we can go in. How could we enter if there was not a Man there? Who would be bold enough to enter first? Christ has gone in first, and we can be bold to go in. On earth He presented man to God in the place of man’s responsibility. Now having borne the judgment on man, He presents man to God, according to the counsel of God. It is no longer Man in solitary perfectness on earth, but living to God, as raised from the dead — the second Man — the Man of God’s purpose, to God’s eternal satisfaction on the ground of what He has accomplished.
We have further in verse 24 that He is entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”. This is different from “entered in” in verse 12. There He entered into the holy place. Here He has entered into heaven for us, while we are yet on earth, but heaven is thus our place. He appears there for us.
[p. 286] We have thus the first step, Christ has entered in; and in chapter 10: 19 we have boldness to enter in. Now we have come on our part to the divine proposition of chapter 2. We are “sanctified by the will of God”. God’s will was to put us in the priestly place — as sons — and Christ has “perfected for ever them that are sanctified”. The question of responsibility perfectly and eternally settled and not to be revived, we have boldness to enter; and when you enter the holiest, you enter the scene of divine glory — where all is of God — to respond to the love that has brought you there. The glory of God is His effulgence in the accomplishment of the purposes of His love. In one sense He has all His purpose accomplished in Christ. But He will have it accomplished in us. Christ has entered in for us. The love of God has accomplished all for His own satisfaction, and we accept it and respond to it. If you speak of sons before God, you must see Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, the firstborn of many brethren, and you go in through that new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. May God give us to be able to say in regard to saints, “What hath God wrought!”.